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Thursday, November 1, 2007

An interesting request came in from one of my bakery clients (who happens to be from Malaysia, not Thailand, but "Malaysian Pumpkin Pie" just didn't have the same ring) a few days ago.

She asked me if I could please make her a pumpkin pie, but add in two very unusual ingredients – creamed coconut and peanut butter. Very interesting, I thought, I had never heard of anything like that! Not being one to turn down an interesting kitchen experiment though, I began formulating ideas in my head.

I had never heard of creamed coconut before either, so I took a wander over to the website of the brand she had given me and then delved a little deeper through good ol' Google. This is what I found out:

Creamed coconut is a solid white block made from pure coconut and is widely used in Thai, Indian and Caribbean cooking. It adds a distinctive coconut flavour and rich, creamy texture to dishes, chopped into chunks it can be stirred directlyinto sauces to thicken them. It can also be reconstituted with hot water beforeuse, following packet or recipe instructions. Creamed coconut can be reconstituted and used in recipes instead of coconut milk. Creamed coconut can also be grated and used in place of desiccated coconut. (Waitrose)

Armed with that knowledge, a package of creamed coconut, a jar of peanut butter and the beginnings of a recipe, I proceeded to cook. This is the result! It smells delicious, like toasted coconut and peanut butter cookies all rolled into one.

In a small saucepan, whisk together soy milk, water, sugar, cornstarch and pumpkin pie spice until well blended.

Heat, whisking occasionally, until steaming.

Stir in the creamed coconut and remove from heat, stirring to thicken. Set aside to cool slightly.

Combine pumpkin puree and peanut butter in a large bowl.

Pour warm coconut mixture into bowl and whisk until smooth and thick.

Pour into pie shell, smoothing top.

Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350F.

Bake for additional 25 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool on wire rack for 2 hours.

Refrigerate minimum 1 hour before serving.

For those of you paying attention to that sort of thing, 1/10th of this recipe clocks in at about 245.0 Calories, 15.7 g Fat, 3.4 mg Cholesterol, 22.6 g Carbs and 2.3 g Fibre. I never said pie was good for ya!

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween last night! Teaghan and I got creative with our carvings this year, inciting a mass pumpkin-carnage scene. We mixed the pumpkin innards with red food colour, corn syrup and olive oil and then proceeded to fling it about like an episode of CSI gone wrong. Too much fun!